I don’t recall if it was mandatory during setup or not. I can control it locally when the internet is down, at least from the wall, I don’t think the app would work. But again, I wanted the remote features so I didn’t even try to set it up without an account.

Home assistant may work as well, but I don’t use it.

It’s really not bad. Sign in, goes to a page that just says not found. 3 dot>open in app and you’re in.

Logging in via the app. It launches the browser. If using Firefox you have to do the extra step I mentioned.

Here’s the screen.

Ecobee also requires chrome, but had a work around. Not sure if it’ll work here, but ecobee said to hit the 3 dot menu and choose open in app after the login failed and that logged you in.

We have lg washer and dryer and I just set up thinQ on my wifes new phone. It asked for location and when denied it said automations might not work. Asked my wife, she said what’s that? So location disabled app works fine. My main issue is not being able to just set a custom wash or dry from the machine. Why do I have to download a program if all I want is to lower the dryer temp without choosing delicate, which also shortens the time. Just have a full custom cycle and let me customize it.